Dawn Arheit, Busy B Realty broker and owner, Delphos, is offering virtual online tours of homes to help protect potential buyers from the novel coronavirus.
“We changed our business structure and went to all virtual tours and do not meet clients at properties,” Arheit said. When clients contact Arheit, she emails the virtual tour of homes they are interested in.
“Real estate was also deemed essential because a lot of us, myself included, do property management and we need to continue to do maintenance for tenants and collect rents.”
Arheit had many deals under contract before the novel coronavirus hit she is trying to close, but said she doesn’t have many new buyers.
Agents are still answering their phones, but sellers don’t feel comfortable listing their houses for people to tour, she said.
Arheit has a staff member who has not worked for the past three weeks due to an autoimmune disease and will most likely not work until June, Arheit said. Her other agent cares for his mother who has health concerns.
Jason Liening, Cowan Realtors broker and real estate agent, Lima, said people are moving in from out of town and people are putting their houses on the market.
“We are taking extra steps to be cautious to follow the CDC guidelines by wearing gloves at showings and if anyone wants to look at things, I can use my gloves,” Liening said.
The business that has 28 agents is doing Facebook Live tours of homes. He said there are still new home listings every day and contracts being written. The business has not had to reduce hours or staff due to COVID-19.
Amber Mangas, HER Realty real estate agent, Leipsic, in Putnam County, said she is not calling people to solicit their business as much as she did before COVID-19 and is more cautious about having buyers go through sellers’ homes. HER Realty is one of the largest independently owned brokers in the state of Ohio based in Columbus.
“We do still have a need for people to buy houses with relocations that we still have to work with,” Mangas said. She said she is making sure the buyer and seller are both comfortable with the process of showing the home and is providing gloves to her clients as they tour and follow social distancing rules.
“Business is slower than it usually would be from the way the market was trending a month ago before COVID started, but I’m staying steadier than I assumed,” Mangas said. She showed a home Sunday and has 11 showings set up for this week.
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